Homage To Catalonia Essay

982 words - 4 pages

In the 1952 novel, Homage to Catalonia, George Orwell relates his experiences in the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Orwell traveled to Spain to cover The Spanish Civil War for a British newspaper, but soon after he arrived he joined the P.O.U.M Militia and fought against Francisco Franco. The Spanish Civil War started when Franco, a Spanish general, led a revolt against the republican government. Franco, although not a fascist himself, was backed by Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, the Spanish Church, Fascists in Spain, and large Spanish landowners. A group of leftist parties, known as the Popular Front, which included republicans, communists, socialists, Anarchists, and communist Russia formed a ...view middle of the document...

" (Orwell 116) He later on goes to explain that he preferred to leave the POUM because of his personal beliefs. Another quote that shows that George Orwell preferred Anarchism over Communism is when he compares the Anarchy army to the other armies of the parties. He states: "In practice the democratic 'revolutionary' type of discipline is more reliable than might be expected. In a worker's army discipline is theoretically voluntary. It is based on class-loyalty, whereas the discipline of a bourgeois conscript army is based ultimately on fear..." (Orwell 28) In this quote he is complimenting the anarchist army saying that they are different from the other armies because it isn't just a job for them, but voluntary. The soldiers in an Anarchist army will be more loyal because they chose to be there and are willing to fight other than some soldiers in other communist armies which might be afraid to go to battle. I personally too am against communism because of their beliefs. Communism dictates where you will live, what you will eat, what you will wear, what you will think, what your religious beliefs will be. There won't be any freedom of speech what so ever or any freedoms of any kind. I also do not think Communism would work because human nature would not let it work. There is no incentive for personal ambition so people wouldn't work as hard as they would in a democracy. People are too greedy to share what they have and everyone wants to better than the other and communism would take that away.

The second reason on why I would choose to be an Anarchist at the time of the Spanish Civil War is because they believed in being separate from the government. Anarchists believe in creating a classless society. They oppose capitalism as a system that puts the profits of a small minority of bosses before the needs of the vast...

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